Between 1950 and 1970 the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Plant generated transuranic (TRU) contaminated waste, which was buried at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. This waste must now be retrieved and sent to a permanent disposal site During retrieval the main contaminates to be controlled are compounds of plutonium and americium. Since these substances are small sized, and extremely mobile, airborne concentrations must be kept to a minimum to effectively eliminate personnel uptake during retrieval operations. This invention relates to a system to control contamination due to TRU airborne particles and was developed consisting of an outer containment building, an inner containment area, a dust suppression system including an electrostatic contaminate capture subsystem, a contamination control system including a moisture control subsystem, a rapid monitoring subsystem, and a lifting and moving system including recovery and repackaging subsystems.
Prior to the development of the contaminate control system, the primary means for the control of airborne TRU particles of plutonium and americium was the control of the moisture content of the soil in and around the dig site. The addition of moisture to the surface soil of a dig is a well known method of dust control used by many industries. However, effective monitoring and control of the airborne particles by moisture addition alone cannot, as a sole means of containment, meet the stringent requirements imposed by the federal and state governments for TRU waste sites. The present invention provides for a contaminate recovery system that incorporates a self contained means for retrieval and repackaging of TRU waste, and a novel electrostatic radioactive particle containment procedure.